


Loaded Guns & Other Cliches

by soporsensuality (mulattafury)



Category: Original Work
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-10
Updated: 2015-08-10
Packaged: 2018-04-14 01:47:58
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4545474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mulattafury/pseuds/soporsensuality
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two Horizon agents team up to rescue a third, and get to know each other a little better before heading out on their mission. Some pretty graphic teasings and feelings-up, but no actual doin' it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Loaded Guns & Other Cliches

**Author's Note:**

> This is an RP from my old elliquiy days. I am no longer in touch with Doak's writer. I am writing from the perspective of Glitch.

There was a lot that could be said about Horizon, Glitch thought, leaning back against the soft pillows of his king-sized bed and starting in on his fourth glass of wine for the evening. But they  _certainly_ treated their associates well. Back before he'd worked for the company, a job on this port would have been miserable work -- stealing about the crime-addled streets, always dark, always raining, trying to talk to all the right people and avoid even looking at the wrong ones, searching for access points in derelict buildings as god-knows-who crept about the shadows for god-knows-what purpose.

But now, it was almost a joke. He  _was_  the access point, the datajack, the Glitch in the mainframe. He could infiltrate a network with a thought, manipulate data with subtle flicks of his fingertips, destroy a lifetime of research and information just by being present. It was kind of boring, really, and a shame that now that he had all this, all this potential and power, that he was trapped using it to advance the cause of the entity he'd once risked everything to fight against.

Not that it would do much to think on it now. He'd gotten what he came for and was set to enjoy the spoils. He'd shut his eyes off for the night -- damn things just gave him a headache, especially when he was drinking -- and settled into the smoky atmosphere of the stormy port, the fragrant bouquet of wine, the rattle of rain on the windows. And besides, who really needed eyesight when one could access security cameras at one's leisure? The couple in the elevator was certainly interesting...

"Glitch. What are you doing?"

Priya's voice seemed to cut into his brain, sharp and accusing before he'd even answered her. A frown spread across his lips.

"I've finished your job, Kapoor. Confirmed, Evotech is building a research station on--"

"Turn on your comm screen, Glitch, I'd prefer to look at you while I'm talking to you."

"Oh, but I don't even have pants on..."

"Yes, that's the sort of thing I worry about. Get to it, now..."

Five minutes later and Glitch was seated in front of the communication terminal. The eyes were back on, glowing a pale blue, and he massaged his temples with a frown as the screen flashed on.

"Beautiful as usual, Kapoor. This important?"

"As always. I need you to... is that a bathrobe?"

"Yeah."

"Right. Well. I've a task for you, Glitch."

"What about my current assignment?"

"We've gotten everything we need from Evotech, don't worry. I think you'll like this, though. You remember Friday Black?"

"How could I forget? Didn't she go under a while back? Pirates or something?"

"It appears we were misinformed. We did, however, plan for this contingency. I assume you've pulled her file up by now?"

"Yeah. What do you need me to do?"

"One of our associates is docked--"

"On this station? I know. Are we recruiting?"

"Mmm. You'll speak to a man named Doak. I'll send you the necessary information, get you clearance to access the ship..."

"Why couldn't you just contact him yourself?"

"I want you to stay with them. Keep me informed."

"Oh... of course. And when am I expected to...?"

"Tonight, if you can. And you can."

"It's always night here..."

"NOW, Glitch. Goodbye."

He groaned once Priya's image flickered away, not feeling particularly excited about leaving the comfortable room, and wondering in the back of his mind how much the establishment would miss a single bathrobe.

He didn't look like much when he approached the docks. Glitch was a tall, lanky thing, with a black hooded shirt covering his cybernetics, even the eyes hidden behind the dark blue lenses of a pair of goggles. Gloved hands fidgeted with a black bag strapped over his shoulder, and he breathed a small sigh of relief when the doors slid open for him. Mercenary ship. Not his kind of place.

"I was told to see a man named Doak?" Glitch informed the crewman by the door, flashing the Horizon ID clipped to his belt. "Is he here?"

"The armory, down the corridor, just there."

"Uh.. thanks."

Glitch made his way to the aforementioned area, clearing his throat as he stepped inside. "Scuse me, are you Doak? Jakob Doak? Boss has a message for you..."

-

Jakob Doak looked up from the barrel of the pulse rifle he was inspecting and sighed. For all this company supplies him with, for all the money that was put into his augmentations, for all they expect him to do, they still couldn't manage to find a custom weapons manufacturer for him who could put the sights on a gun straight. All the bells and whistles, human-machine interface, pump-action grenade launcher, feather-weight carbine fiber frame...didn't much matter when the gun couldn't shoot straight.   
" _Guess I'll be sprayin' and prayin'..._ " he thought, frowning.  
He took a cigarillo from his shirt pocket and put a match up to the filler while he clenched the butt in his teeth, thinking back on the hours he had spent in the lab today. It was his tune-up day. The one day in the year he was reminded more than ever that Horizon owned his sorry, partially metallic ass. He had never liked doctors before he was augmented, and he certainly didn't like them any better now that in addition to the normal poking and prodding, there was drilling and draining and pumping and scanning and God knows what else. He shook his head and let huffed out a cloud of blue smoke. Still...what other option did he have besides this?

 "Scuse me, are you Doak? Jakob Doak? Boss has a message for you..."

Doak turned around and looked up at the gangly, goggled man who stood in the door frame. He seemed nervous, as if he had some matter of great import to deliver. The mercenary extended one metallic arm and silently motioned for him to come in.  
"Take a seat friend, tell me some good news," Jakob said, giving a small smile.   
Glitch shakily walked past Doak and sat down on the bench opposite of him. He curiously examined Glitch, looking over his implants. He had never seen someone so heavily modified...save for maybe himself.    
"I see we already have something in common," He said in between puffs.

-

"Yeah, I.. uh. I see that," Glitch remarked, resting the goggles on his head as the cybernetic eyes focused on the man before him. "Another Horizon chop-job, ain'tcha? Sweet hell brother I thought I was the only one..." A grin spread across his lips as his eyes darted between Jakob's visible modifications, mind buzzing as he tried to access Horizon's access about this mercenary and what they'd done to him, and of course being blocked at every turn. Well it was nothing to worry about now, he supposed. Something in common? The man didn't know the half of it.

The hooded sweatshirt and gloves covered all but the modifications in Glitch's head and face, and those were extensive on their own. Extensive augmentations covered in unsightly metal plates -- no use blending them in when they were constantly being updated. The same plates and wires covered his entire body, protecting delicate structures of various functions, many of them not even related to his purpose, but simply there for the researchers to see if they would work.

And they did, of course. They worked very well, in fact, but Glitch wasn't quite sure he could legitimately call himself human anymore. How could he? He hardly needed to eat, sleep, breathe. Every single piece of equipment was part of a slow conversion from human to machine, with a singular purpose and a living mind.

Interesting to see the company take the idea in a different direction.

"Name's Glitch, by the way. Well I mean, 's not my  _name_ , quite, but 's what they call me anyway. Ms. Kapoor's got a nice young lady she'd like you to pick up, got the info for you. Someone we thought went under, don't want to lose track of. Got room on your ship, I hope?"

-

Doak looked Glitch up and down, taking in all his features, biological and cybernetic.     
"I think I can fit you aboard," he said, smiling. "I've been needing some company lately, it gets rather lonely with nothing random radio chatter talkin' to you."  
The mercenary took the portfolio from Glitch and loaded it up into his PDA. An image of a young woman in front and profile came up with a heading that said "FRIDAY BLACK". Doak zoomed in and brought his face to the lambent glow of the screen. Partially shaven head, one eye augmented, tats up to her shoulders...  
"My kinda girl..." Doak mumbled.  
He scrolled down and took a look at her history and involvement with Horizon. Shake-downs, assassinations, corporate sabotage... He wondered briefly what exactly had driven her to seek Horizon as an employer.   
"Well, I'm just meetin' all kinds of interesting people today. You know this girl personally? I've heard the name Friday Black a few times in passing around here, mostly a midst a lot of profanities."

-

"Your kinda girl, eh? You and me both, friend," Glitch said with a smirk. "And put that little toy away, yeah? I got what you need."

He removed his gloves, revealing metal plates on the back of his slender hands, connected to thin wires woven through metal-capped fingers. He slid the goggles back over his eyes, the lenses glowing a dim blue as information scrolled across.

"Miss Black," he said, holding out his hands, the file on the PDA projecting much larger on a holographic screen between his palms. "She's nothing to mess with. Good gun arm on her but not the sort you want out of your sight. I worked  with her in the past, yeah, before and after Horizon once or twice. Guess I know her as personally as you can know a gal like that..." Little ticks of his ring finger scrolled through the information, starting with her abandonment of Earth and ending in her recent imprisonment and presumed death. 

"She an' Miss Kapoor got a bit of a history, though. Might not come easy. We got an ace in the hole if we need it though..."

Another file came up then, the image of a pretty girl with long, dark curls and similar features to Friday. She was quite unmarred, however, by the tattoos Friday had chosen to mark herself with, only the upper lip of her full, pouting mouth tattooed in black.

"Her name's Ciara. Horizon's been taking good care of her, don't think she even knows Friday's been missing."

-

"A rescue...well, let's be honest here, break-out...a break-out with someone who might even be happier being left rotting in her cell. I don't think I've ever done one of those but I'm always up for something new," Doak said, rolling the cigarillo around thoughtfully in his mouth. "I wonder if mommy even knows what her little girl is doing...or what she's done. Though I can't really speak very highly about how I deal with my own family business...let's just say, to each their own." Doak watched the lines of information scroll across the screen. Every detail of this girl's life was thrown up before them, all from Horizon's endless data banks. He briefly considered just exactly what they had on him, how much they watched him in his spare time. There could be a thousand bugs in his cybernetics and he wouldn't know...they already monitor every time his heartbeat exceeds a certain point, when he eats, when he sleeps, when he dreams...who's to say if his very thoughts aren't bugged too? Doak shook his head and silently considered the situation he would be in if such things were true. He looked up at Glitch and once again marveled at the extent to which his body was modified. Underneath it all, he could see the figure and face of a rather handsome young man...perhaps others looked at him the way he did Glitch...

 

Shaking away the thoughts, Doak turned from the hologram and began disassembling the pulse rifle which he lay carefully in its foam case.  
"Well, I guess we'll be keeping each other company then to...hmmph..say, where is this place anyway?"

-

"A breakout? I doubt it's anything quite so dramatic. Miss Black didn't make it back from an assignment about a year ago. I guess Horizon assumed she was dead, but she's resurfaced on a station in the Torian system. Dunno if you recall, but Horizon funded a colony on Toria 7 a while back, actually had her on security detail and cleanup when they were blocking it out. Can't imagine what she'd be doing there -- guess that's why the company wants to keep tabs on her."

The hologram flickered out, and Glitch shrugged, leaning back in his seat.

"Shouldn't be too bad of a ride, anyway. Kind of lucky we were both stationed here, but like anything that Horizon sticks its paws in, I doubt it was completely a coincidence. I'll forward the coordinates to your ship's computer, anyway."

He glanced up, briefly meeting the other man's eyes, a slight smile on his lips. He'd felt Doak's eyes on him, and it was hard not to stare back. He usually hated being stared at. It was hard enough as it was, feeling as though Horizon's wires and drills had carved away at his humanity, and having another's gawking eyes reaffirming how much of a freak he'd become had never been a particularly welcome feeling. 

But this was different somehow. It was almost thrilling, in a way, being around someone who'd come out of Horizon's augmentation and still looking... well. Glitch did wonder what the man had looked like before, but he certainly wasn't hard on the eyes as he was now.

He wondered if Horizon had significantly upgraded the hardware since they'd done his own implants. He was still clearing the bugs out of his own -- removing, rewriting, feeding them false information when needed. It was a slow-going process, careful as he was not to tip them off, but he wondered if they were as careful with the ones they'd given Doak. It would be a fun project, he suspected, to play around with the tech and see how much he could loosen his fellow cyborg from Horizon's leash.

"You know, I've never uh, met someone else with quite as much augmentation going on," Glitch admitted. "I'd be super into checking out your equipment if you'll let me, seein' if it's compatible with mine. The innuendo, you can leave or take."

-

The mercenary smiled, running his eyes up and down Glitch's tall, rather slender frame and feeling a rather pleasant twinge in his groin. He hadn't had a young thing like him in quite a while...space was cold and lonely and you have to get your kicks where you can. Jakob had long been factoring out gender in who he choose to lay with. Still though, he had never been with someone who was so like him...maybe that's what he liked about him.

"Well that depends there, Glitch, just how soft of a touch do you have with those tin-man hands?" Doak smirked, and took off his thin linen shirt, revealing his broad chest, which was stippled with metal plates and scars from the implants Horizon had supplied him with. Still, underneath the modifications, years of military service had made his body hard and toned and well-defined. He flexed, bending his arms this way and that, showing off the impressive mix of metal and musculature and grinned at Glitch. They  _were_  different in some ways...Doak had to be combat-ready, flexible, able to jump and run and shoot without his machine bits going haywire. His arm particularly was made for durability...he could probably land his ship on it and still be as dexterous and functional as ever.  

"You want me to get my pants off to, or you have that planned for later? I'll let you know this," he said, pointing to his groin. "luckily was not blown off, severed, or made metallic in anyway."

-

"Oh, good," Glitch replied, trying to keep too much excitement from showing through in his voice. "They were careful to leave me... hm. Very usable, as well." Glitch doubted, however, that this had anything to do with genuine concern and more to do with giving them yet another way to manipulate him if necessary, but he had to take what he could get.

Speaking of taking what one could get, Glitch couldn't quite recall a time when he'd been so excited by the sight of a shirtless man. Generally he preferred women, though really he enjoyed just about anyone that could hold a certain level of power over him, but in terms of sheer physical attractiveness it was odd for a man to do quite so much for him. The muscle, the scars, and fuck, it certainly helped that Glitch had always been a bit of a technophile. It was almost sickening, how very much he enjoyed the interplay of the hard edges of machine against softer flesh, and nearly impossible to keep his hands from shaking as he approached the other man, brushing a feather-light touch across his chest.

"I can do pretty good, Doak," he said with a smirk. "But you don't seem like the type of fella that likes it 'soft.'" Fingers slid more firmly along Doak's sides, tracing the edges of the implants, Glitch giving the occasional shiver when an exposed wire would slide against another in Doak's tech, sending an electrified buzz between them.

"Starting to think this might be dangerous, anyway," he teased, sliding to his knees in front of the other man and brushing his lips briefly, lightly against the still-clothed bulge of his cock. "But I kind of like dangerous..."

-

"Well if it's danger that's ahead, perhaps we should...hmmm, maybe get to know eachother a bit better...establish some trust, you know...we might be needin' each other out there in the field someday..." Doak said, reaching out with one hand and caressing Glitch's face playfully. Looking down at the young cyborg he couldn't help but appreciate the look of intense excitement he saw on his face. The bright blue eyes he had were lit up, literally and figuratively as he examined Doak's member. He hadn't been this happy to have a passenger in years. The mercenary rolled his head back and breathed in deeply, letting his fellow cyborg gently stroke and suckle the fat cock that strained against his pants.  
"Say Glitch...you wouldn't happen to have a room we could maybe...continue my inspection in do you? The armory is lovely, I must say but...you know...maybe you have someplace we could get a bit more... comfortable?" He said, and grabbed the zipper of his pants and shook it teasingly.

-

"Ah, fuck," Glitch muttered, a bit distracted by the pleasant flush the wine and now arousal had stirred. "I checked out of my room when I came out to the docks," he admitted, shivering excitedly when Doak tugged at his zipper. "But I figure the armory's about the best place for a loaded gun, yeah?" He smirked, catching the zipper briefly between his teeth, though he didn't tug it down, instead dipping his head to give a long, slow lick to the thick, concealed bulge pressed against his face, his own cock twitching in his pants.   
"But uh, if you want you can take me to your ship, get me set up..." He stood, hand sliding over the man's torso again, breath heavy as he watched his fingers slip over that beautifully augmented flesh. "Give me the full tour, yeah?"  
His eyes met Doak's then, and he couldn't help a small laugh. "Sorry, I was drunk and  _so_  horny before I even came out here. Think I'm 'bout to be glad I did..."

-

Doak bit his lip and swore softly as Glitch teased his cock with his mouth. He ran an appreciatory hand through the young man’s hair which came to rest on his shoulder.   
“Shit…it’s been too goddamn long…” He sighed blissfully. The merc listened to Glitch on his state of his mind. It was almost cute the way his voice quivered in excitement as he spoke. Doak couldn’t say he was drunk, but damn if he wasn’t horny as anything.  
“Yeah…yeah, you and me both…it’s just nice to find somebody who doesn’t up and leave when I take my shirt off.” Doak said, looking down and up at the young man who stood over him, drinking in the slender shape of his body, the slight curve of his hips, every feature which led up to those softly luminous eyes. He stared long into them before his lips turned up into a small grin. “You know, I bet those will be real fun in the dark…” He laughed a bit to himself and put away the pulse rifle beside him into the case at his feet and closed it. 

 

“Right then, the ship.” Doak stood up throwing his shirt up over his shoulder then took gently took Glitch by the arm with his one fleshy hand and the case containing the pulse rifle in another. They went outside together to Horizon’s private port where Doak’s ship was docked. It was a small craft, quick, capable, but most importantly, inconspicuous. It could land in most ports without raising any sort of suspicion or attracting the attention of any of the many enemies Horizon (and by proxy Doak) had made over the years of its operation. It was even cloaked entirely in a proto-type carbon weave that allowed the ship to become literally invisible. The ship would heat up to such a temperature that it would refract the light that hit it, creating the illusion that it looked just like it’s surroundings. The only drawback was that it could be picked up by most heat sensors. If all else failed, it could hold its own in a dogfight, given the proper pilot who knew who to utilize its agility. They hurried together toward the ship through the rain as it fell sideways in the darkness. The flood-lights that usually bathed the area in a sort of sickly yellow had long since gone dark and the usually hustle and bustle on the port had vanished in the night. 

They approached the ship and Doak stretched out a hand and made a sweeping gesture.  
“Well,” Doak shouted over the wind and the rain, “She’s a beut ain’t she?”  
Doak punched in a series of codes into an access panel by the door which opened a series of pneumatic locks, letting lose a loud, low hiss and a cloud of white gas. The door swung open and a staircase unfolded out to touch the ground at the two men’s feet. Doak sprung up the flight and leaned down to offer a hand to Glitch. Doak punched a button and the staircase collapsed back into the ship and the door closed and locked itself tight.   
The Merc grinned and wordlessly grabbed Glitch by the hand and took him through a series of narrow corridors. Finally they stopped at a bulkhead hatch which Doak opened with a press of his thumb to the biometric scanner on the wall.  
“You get the express honor of seeing inside the captain’s chambers. Among other things…” Doak said and looked back at the young man and smiled.  
 The hatch unlocked and Doak pushed it open and led Glitch in by the hand.

The room was simple, as is expected for a ship built more for function then for pleasure, but Doak, with the help of Horizon, had tried his best to make it feel like home. There was a large porthole by the queen size bed adorned with dark blue drapes which offset the sterile metallic gray of the walls and a beige and blue Persian rug covered most of the floor. There was a desk in the corner with a computer and a holo-screen, and in the other corner a dark rosewood cabinet. “Ya like it?” Doak asked, “It ain’t home, but it’s something I can work with.”

-

Glitch tensed when he felt Doak's hand on his arm, but managed not to pull away from him, for the moment, not wanting the man to misinterpret such a gesture as rejection. He did, however, make a fumbling search for his ID as they approached the docks. It still hung from its familiar place at his belt, but it gave him a moment to fall behind Doak in step, and when the other man offered his hand again he pretended not to notice as he preoccupied himself with tucking the card into his bag.

He hoped that Doak wouldn't pick up on this aversion, or would at least attribute it to performance anxiety and not read much into it. Glitch had never cared much for physical affection, but since being augmented he tried to avoid it completely. He felt like a thing, and he enjoyed, perhaps too much, being used like a thing. Being touched like a friend or lover was something he wasn't quite able to accept.

So he avoided it, when he could, unsure of how to otherwise respond to it, and without the more intense discomfort of Doak standing so very close to him he could focus on the more general anxiety that being around ships stirred within him. Glitch was not a fan of space travel, or anything that went with it, and the last few trips had been especially hellacious as the ships' navigation systems had interfered with some of his newer tech. He used to get chemmed up before a trip, spending most of it asleep or out of his mind, but the tech was starting to make that nearly unbearable. He'd been reassured after his latest upgrade that the interference should be minimal, though he wasn't terribly optimistic. And even if it were true, there still wasn't much to look forward to during those long, quiet, empty sojurns into the void.

Except, maybe, finally getting to taste that thick cock he'd teased and stroked to hardness not even an hour before. The thought brought a bit of relief and a pleasant tingle, even as they made their way through the ship, Glitch ducking his head slightly as he stepped into Doak's room.

"Man, you could definitely be doing worse," Glitch answered the other man, glancing around the room with an approving nod. "Where am I staying? Even if it ain't quite as homey, figure I should drop off my stuff before I get too distracted..."

-

“Ah, the guest cabin yeah,” Doak said, rubbing his chin, “Well, it’s just down the hall and to the left. The bulkhead hatch is open, so you shouldn’t have much trouble getting in. You may be the very first person to use it. I don’t get a lot of passengers, as you probably understand.” Doak walked over to the cabinet and fished out a bottle of bourbon, one of many he kept there. Switching into auto-pilot, when able, and drinking away the trip was something he did frequently. After the coordinates had been set and the plan laid out, there wasn’t much else required of him. No one to talk to, nothing to do, (save for reading mission briefings and recalibrating weapons) half his new life was spent hurtling through space steeped in a drunken, hazy, interminable agony. The alternative was almost worse. In the lipid, sober states he spent alone there was not much else to do but meditate on the situation he had chosen. He could reconcile with fate, be it some random tragedy or windfall that may occur, at least it had been thrust upon him and outside of his command. But this was the reality he had sought out. Better than death, right? Of course, the other half of his life, there was no room for idle thoughts on the direction one’s life was heading in. It was all “pray-you-don’t-die-this-assignment run-shoot-hide -get-the-fuck-out-of-dodge-when-you’re-done”. Horizon had given him everything he needed in life except instructions on how the fuck he was supposed to live with himself. 

He pulled the cork out with his teeth and spat it across the room. He put the bottle down and removed a pair of wide-mouth tumblers from the cabinet which tapped together lightly as he brought them down on the table.      
“You got a head-start on drinking and I intend to keep up…can I pour you a glass while you’re gone? Loosen you up a bit? You seem pretty tense…”

-

"Yeah man, I'd appreciate it. Space and I aren't the best of friends and all, bein' on ships gets me all worked up. Loosen me up as much as you like -- it's not like I'm working tonight." He winked, hefting his bag onto his shoulder and ducking out of the room, making his way to his own corner of the spacecraft. His room was minimally-appointed, compared to Doak's, but Glitch actually preferred it that way. The clean lines and sleek, efficient space actually put him more at ease than a room that pretended to be home. Those sorts of places he enjoyed far more when docked.

He dropped his bag on the bed for the moment, peeling off his jacket, the hooded garment damp and vaguely smoke-scented from the time he'd spent on the docks. The gloves and goggles followed -- no need for any of that now, though he paused when he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror on the far side of the room. The sleeveless black shirt showed a lot more of himself than he was used to showing a partner. He couldn't fully hide that he was modded, but most people only ever really saw the eyes, sometimes the hands. It was rare for him to show the wires tunneling into his arms, and as far as he knew no one had ever really seen the plates covering the implants that ran up his back and neck, connected to the exposed panels from the datajacks in his head. Who would want to see that, anyway? As far as he knew he was the only freak who got turned on by shit like that, but maybe not anymore.

He was a bit calmer when he returned to Doak's room, accepting the glass of bourbon with a nod. "Thanks, man. You know, it's kind of weird they got a merc out here alone. But I guess with all those mods you can do the work of a full squad, yeah?" He took a thoughtful sip of his drink, sitting on the edge of Doak's bed. "Wondering what they're gonna be putting us up to, you know?"

-

Doak finally saw the full extent of Glitch’s mods as he walked back into the captain’s cabin. His heart leapt a little at the bare skin he was showing, and he was glad the young man had gotten at least comfortable enough to reveal his less apparent mods to Doak, which he was clearly self-conscious about from the way he held himself, shifting back and forth nervously. Or perhaps it was because they were going to take off in a bit, or the prospect of spending time with Doak. Maybe all three. All Doak knew was that he couldn’t wait to get that shirt off of him…

 

“Hmmm, I’d say at this point you know more than me,” Doak said, running his finger around the rim of his tumbler, “All I have is a profile of the target and where to pick her up, whereas you’re actually familiar with her and I bet you probably know just exactly she got into her little mess. Maybe. Like you said before, you’ve got history,” Doak took a drink and swished the bourbon around in his mouth before swallowing. “But the way these things usually go down, these little pick up and drop off missions, is that nothing happens or everything happens. We either stroll in and stroll out with Friday in hand or everything goes to shit before we even have properly docked. Don’t ask me the specifics on how things might go to shit…but it’s always an option. I’ve taken lighter jobs, well, I’ve had lighter jobs forced onto me, where all hell has broken loose.” Doak took a long drink and looked off out through the porthole at the raindrops running down the glass. He turned back to Glitch and smiled and said, “But hey, whatever happens I’ll keep an eye on you. Not to brag, but you’re gonna be protected by some of Horizon’s top muscle.” He flexed his one fleshy arm and his well-muscled biceps bulged up through the thin cloth of his shirt. This did get his mind to thinking though. Why would Horizon be sending one of their best enforcers on what seemed like an errand? Just who was this girl?

-

"Good to know," Glitch said with a grin, eyes sliding appreciatively over the man's impressive musculature. "I used to do all my work alone, y'know. Well, not alone, but I never met my team in the meatspace. Different kind of work, then. Different kind of dangerous. Now Horizon will hardly send me anywhere without an escort."

He stood, making his way over to the porthole, taking a long pull from his glass as he stared out into the rain. "As for Friday... one of the last jobs she did for Horizon before she went under was on Toria 7. The official word was that she was security detail on a research station Horizon was building out there, but the finances at the time don't add up. A lot of money was being moved around back then, and a lot of unlabeled shipments were being sent out to the site before construction was even scheduled to begin. They were sending a lot of guys out there, and I haven't been able to find anything that would hint as to why."

He frowned, turning back towards Doak, leaning back against the wall. "I think that Friday has some sensitive information in her possession regarding that project. That's why they're sending you, at least -- whether they are expecting resistance or not, I suspect that if Friday doesn't join with us the next order will be to terminate. She may also become hostile when she finds out her sister is under the company's protection. They need someone who can handle her, if things don't go as planned." He shrugged.

"But that doesn't explain why I'm here. Priya should know that my personal history with Friday won't make a damn bit of difference in getting her on our side.The three of us would represent some of Horizon's most valuable assets, so there must be a reason Priya wants us together." He shook his head, staring into his glass and chuckling softly.

"Probably better not to overthink it, or I'll need another two or three of these," he remarked, raising the tumbler with a grin before draining it completely.

-

“Ahh shit,” Doak said, taking another sip.   
“I might have to kill this girl and I’ve seen the face of her sister,” Doak said and put the glass down on the desk next to him. He went over to the bed where Glitch had sat and took a seat himself. He rubbed his eyes with the palms of his hands like a drunk attempting to rid himself of a post-hangover headache.   
“That makes me feel just real great about what I might have to do. Well at least we have some sort of leverage, right? It might not have to come to that.”  
Doak briefly considered the long list of people he had been tasked to kill. He was given a name. A face. An occupation, maybe. Where he or she might be found. Anything beyond that was just a little too close. He shuddered, thinking back on the time he had killed a man in front of his family. He was just a scientist, some high-level, egg-headed old man who had wanted out of Horizon and sought protection with a smaller bio-synth company. Horizon had no way of telling whether or not he was spilling secrets, but they weren’t willing to risk it. Doak had hunkered down for hours on top of a tenement by an urban park he was said to frequent. He had followed the man with his scope the minute he got out of his car, waiting just for the right time to pull the trigger. He only had had one chance to shoot, or else the guards would hurry him back into the car and put him in lockdown for the next couple of months. Finally the old man sat down, quite still, on a bench and in an instant he had a .50 cal shaped hole in his head. It was only when Doak pulled his scope away from the man that he saw he had one of his grandkids with him. He could never get the look of terror and confusion on that little girl’s face out of his mind. No matter how much of his human parts they took away, no matter how much he drank, no matter how much time passed.

Doak poured another splash of bourbon into his tumbler and drank it down and poured another. “I don’t like it,” he said, trying to muster up some authority in his voice. “Course I don’t like much of anything they make me do. But hey, over thinking is dangerous. Right. Goddamn right.” He stood up and stumbled over to where Glitch had his back to the wall. He took one last pull of his drink and put his hand on Glitch’s shoulder.  
“Hey, whatever happens, us Tin-Men gotta stick together right?”

-

"It's unlikely it will come to that," Glitch reassured Doak when the man worried as to whether he might have to kill their target. "If Priya really didn't expect Friday to be agreeable, it would have been much easier for her to order a simple assassination. And hell, I know the chick. She might make a lot of noise but the bottom line is she won't back down from a good payday. She started doing this shit because she loves this kind of work, after all, not because she had to."

There was a hint of regret there, a desire for absolution. Before his capture his life had been devoted to undermining the ungodly amounts of power that corporations like Horizon wielded. They had called him a terrorist, though he couldn't help but feel that was closer to the truth now than it had ever been. One of the things, the only things, that kept him sane anymore was reminding himself that he had never killed anyone. 

And it was true, in a way. He had never looked into a man's eyes and pulled the trigger, but part of him knew that was bullshit. Men like Doak ended lives with bullets. Men like Glitch leveled empires with information.

His eyes slid closed when Doak's hand rested on his shoulder. He smirked in response to his comment, but he didn't reply, instead taking Doak's hand and raising it to his mouth. He wrapped his lips around the other man's index finger, his tongue curling around it, communicating very clearly that he was all too tired of talking about work.


End file.
